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Wearing a blue pinstripe suit and red necktie, former U.S. President Richard Nixon made his way across the lobby of Oradell physician David Abend's Kinderkamack Road office.

It was December 1993 and the then-81-year-old Nixon, formerly of Saddle River and Park Ridge, was seeking an osteopathic physician in the area.

I'll never forget it," said Abend, who is double-board certified in family practice, and Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. "He expressed the same humility that any patient would, which I thought was cool."

Nixon wasn't the only president to spend time in Bergen and Passaic counties:

The Van Allen House, Oakland:
George Washington and his officers stayed at the Van Allen House on July 14, 1777, on their way north to join more of their forces near West Point.

President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Teaneck Armory in 1960
.
Before his 1961 election, the then-senator said: "This country cannot survive unless the political leaders, those who seek positions of responsibility, are willing to tell the people the truth, and you cannot hide the truth in all the department agencies in Washington."

Ford campaigns for Ridgewood schoolteacher, Wyckoff resident: Former president Gerald Ford campaigned for Congresswoman and
Ridgewood schoolteacher Marge Roukema
in 1980. She went on to serve 22 years as a member of the House of Representatives.